The exothermic polymerization, upon the polymerization reaction of various substances in the characteristic of the polymerization, raises the temperature inside the reactor, and thus uses such as a jacket and a reflux condenser in order to maintain a constant temperature.
Kinds of the jacket used in continuous or batch polymerization reactors are the oldest Single External type, Half Pipe Coil type surrounding as the coil form around the reactor, and Constant Flux Cooling type developed in recent years and so on.
The single external type jacket is manufactured to have a structure in which another space is formed in a wall of the reactor such that chilled water can flow in the space. When the single external type jacket is applied to a small-sized reactor, the single external type jacket cools the reactor through the entirety of the wall of the reactor. Consequently, the single external type jacket can be effectively used for the small-sized reactor. On the other hand, as the size of the reactor is increased, circulation of the coolant flowing in the jacket is difficult so that uniform cooling may be difficult depending upon the position of the reactor.
The half (½) pipe coil type jacket is a spiral type jacket configured such that a half pipe is wound on the outer wall of the body of the reactor in a coil shape. This type jacket has an advantage in that a coolant is rapidly circulated and thus it is possible to uniformly adjust temperature irrespective of the position of the reactor. For this reason, the half pipe coil type jacket is also usually used for a large-sized reactor.
At a welding process to fix the pipe to the outer wall of the reactor, however, an interval is provided between pipes so that it is difficult to cool the reactor through the entirety of the wall of the reactor unlike the single external type jacket.
The constant flux cooling type jacket is similar to the single external type jacket but has an advantage in that another jacket for controlling temperature is provided in the jacket to rapidly and precisely adjust temperature. However, initial manufacturing cost of this type jacket is high, and thus the constant flux cooling type jacket cannot be easily applied.
Meanwhile, in order to solve a problem in that a heat control area of the reactor is reduced due to the increase in size of the reactor for improving productivity, a method of supplying a coolant to a jacket and a baffle to directly remove heat generated from a reactant has been proposed. In this method, however, operation cost is excessively increased.
In addition, a reflux condenser may be used as a method of easily solving a heat control area problem. In this case, however, quality may be deteriorated. That is, as the size of the reactor is greatly increased, a cooling rate of the reflux condenser is increased. As the cooling rate of the reflux condenser is increased, a polymerized material during reaction or foam generated in the reactor may flow to the reflux condenser so that scale may be formed in the reflux condenser. In a case in which scale is formed in the reflux condenser, it is difficult to remove the scale from the reflux condenser and cooling efficiency is lowered so that productivity is lowered. In addition, the scale may fall into the reactor so that quality of a product in the reactor is badly affected.
In order to solve the above problem, a jacket mounted at the inner wall of the reactor has been proposed. In this case, direct cooling is possible without cooling through the body of the reactor so that cooling is more efficiently achieved than the jacket mounted at the outer wall of the reactor. In a case in which a material to improve heat transfer efficiency is used, however, cost of a product is increased since such a material is very expensive. In a case in which scale is formed in the jacket, it is difficult to remove the scale from the jacket and quality of a product in the reactor is badly affected. In order to prevent this problem, a special scale preventer may be used, but cost of a product is increased.
For example, Japanese Patent Registration No. 2836756 discloses a method of effectively performing cooling through circulation of a reactant using a cooler installed at the outside unlike conventional polymerization. In this method, however, the cooler for cooling and a pump for circulation must be additionally installed so that electric charges and initial investment expenses are increased and thus cost of a product is increased.
Therefore, there is a necessity for technology that is capable of increasing a heat control area of a jacket of a heat control apparatus of a polymerization reactor, thereby improving productivity, and increasing a cooling percentage ratio of a baffle and the jacket to a reflux condenser, thereby stably manufacturing various materials while maintaining quality of the materials.